Last Sunday, the Cubbington Pear Tree was announced as Tree of the Year for England. Here’s how that news was covered on the local news. After winning the Woodland Trust competition, it will now go on to compete for European Tree of the Year in February 2016.
A couple of weeks ago, voting closed in the Woodland Trust competition for Tree of the Year, with the Cubbington Pear Tree which would be felled if HS2 goes ahead making the final ten.
With just three days to go, the Woodland Trust Facebook page revealed that the Cubbington Pear Tree was out in front, ahead of some of the most famous and historically significant trees in the country.
The winner will be announced on Countryfile tonight, on BBC1 between 6.15 and 7.15. Here’s and interview with Cubbington Action Group Chair, Peter Delow recorded when the competition was ongoing.
“If money can’t be found to mitigate this project, it simply shouldn’t go ahead” John Bercow, MP, tells the HS2 Hybrid Bill Select Committee.
Report from South Heath. Bucks in The Chilterns, BBC1 South Today (Oxon/Bucks), 16th October 2015
Almost exactly two years ago, it was revealed that after the Government paid KPMG £250,000 to invent a brand new untested methodology to create supposed economic benefits of the HS2 project, it turned out that lots of places would actually be economic losers. The report was decried by economists as ‘essentially made up’, and to put it in perspective claimed it £15bn of annual economic benefits, despite the fact the current rail network is only worth £10bn per year to the economy, and HS2 would only carry 6% of the passengers.
As this clearly shows the economic benefits were inflated, then surely the losses some places would face were underestimated. Here’s how Newsnight reported on it at the time.
Video by Anas Hassan. “It looks unlikely that the UK Government’s new High Speed Railway Project, HS2, will be coming to Scotland any time soon.”
In the aftermath of Scotland voting to stay within the United Kingdom, Anas explains why Scottish taxpayers should not have to contribute a single penny towards a railway which won’t even benefit the Scottish economy and, in fact, could damage it.
BBC Radio 4 Today programme interviews Cheryl Gillan MP, Conservative (Amersham & Chesham) and Simon Kirby, Chief Executive of HS2 Ltd. Published on 25 Sep 2015.
When George Osborne went to China last week and started the bidding for HS2 contracts, there was not only a lot of criticism, but a lot of speculation too.
Peter Delow interviewed about the Cubbington Pear Tree, Warwickshire, which will be destroyed if HS2 goes ahead.
Please vote and tweet this. Voting closes at midnight on Sunday 11th October.
Click here to vote: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visi…
In March 2014, Sunday Politics covered the news that the HS1 rail link might be dropped from the HS2 proposals. Then Transport Minister, Baroness Kramer suggested it could be replaced by a travelator.
Without the link, passengers will not be able to travel directly from the Midlands & North to mainland Europe as promised.
Sunday Politics, BBC1 London, 23rd March 2014
(18 months on, it looks like the link will be formally dropped from the plans.)